she can lie to herself
by long time brother
Summary: caroline / pure awesome: Turn it off, he roars. So Caroline does.
1. turn it off

**A/N:** I get the feeling my muddled brain wants this to be a trilogy-thing. Mostly consists of Caroline being a badass, really. Well, the story will, anyway. Um. Enjoy?

**she can lie to herself**

.

Turn it off, he roars. So she does.

.

"Turn it off!" he roars into her face and she tries not to tremble but the compulsion is working its way into the very seams of her painful control.

_turn it off _

She fights; oh, she fights alright, straining to gain some semblance of power over herself but the cogs are turning, twisting inside her and it's so soft, so warm; the words wash over her and she tries so hard not to close her eyes in wondrous bliss.

_turn it off_

It seems so easy, so simple, just to turn herself over to the switch and just let herself do what he wants, doesn't it? No, no, no, no, no, she doesn't want to turn it off; no, she doesn't, no!

_turn it off_

Brief anger manages to sate the warmth for a while but it's back again, irresistible and even more potent as the words twist into her and she tries to breathe, no, she doesn't want to—

_turn it off_

She can't—she doesn't—

_turn it off_

Please—

_turn it off_

_turn it off_

_turnitoffturnitoffturnitoffturnitoffturnitoffturnitoff—_

Caroline turns off her humanity switch with a silent bang and a satisfied smirk tilts her confident lips before she leans back on one heel. The atmosphere crackles with unspoken electricity and the world goes silent. Surveying the situation around her with one unimpressed arched eyebrow, Caroline lets a small chuckle slip through her mouth and tilts her head curiously.

"Well," she drawls and the tone is so careless, so confident, so _unlike_ Caroline, it makes her friends gasp, "isn't this a _tight_ spot you've all got yourselves in? Mmm?"

She bats at Klaus in front of her with a careless hand, dismissing him as she swivels on one heel and adds, "Don't get me wrong, honeys, I would simply love to stay, really I would. But, well, my life has revolved around you self-centred jerks for too long so I'm going to run."

Caroline laughs a beautiful, cruel laugh, flips her hair and she stalks out of the dingy basement in her high heels, leaving her best friends to suffer at the hands of the Original Hybrid, who is as startled as the rest of them all.

.

.

**to be continued (probably)**


	2. live and let live

**A/N:** For those of you in good ole' States, have fun watching The Vampire Diaries. For those of us who are gonna have to probably watch it days later, have fun trying not to read any spoilers or anything! ...What is wrong with me? Anyway, next chapter's up for those of you who care (probably just pleasesaycaroline - did I mention she's kinda all shades of awesome?) um enjoy!

**.**

**live and let live**

.

.

It's the middle of the night; she's casually walking the town line, bags in hand, potential countries in mind and fabulous hair swishing gorgeously in the night breeze (seriously, it's been straightened to absolute perfection and is enough to rival Elena's post-humanity hairstyle—that's because she used Elena's straightener, but details).

"They're looking for you."

The deep baritone of one Klaus Mikaelson rumbles through the air, husky and intimidating, and Caroline casts a blasé eye over him before shrugging. She does a small spin with her heels—five hundred dollars well _compelled_, she thinks with satisfaction—and drawls, "What makes you think I give a damn?"

Klaus shrugs back and it should annoy her but it doesn't. "I don't."

"Okay then," Caroline singsongs and she ignores him completely, tiptoeing on her heels to see a car driving towards them in the distance. The lights flash brightly and it looks pretty speedy, from what she can tell—

"You made a bit of a mess, you know," Klaus says casually.

Caroline squints towards the car; it may be fast but it's going to take a while so she drops herself down on the road and settles herself, crossing her legs. The breeze picks up and whispers through her hair, pushing Klaus' musky, woody scent towards her.

"After I let your friends go, they—and I—found out what you'd done," he continues, seemingly unaffected by her blatant disregard. Klaus chuckles lightly under his breath. "I've got to say, little vampire. You did surprise me."

"Well, that's just perfect," Caroline rolls the 'r' and gives a bright smile. "I've always wanted to surprise you. Now my life's work is complete!"

Sarcasm drips heavily off her tongue but all Klaus does is chuckle harder and his eyes flick to the speeding car before continuing, "So what did you do, today? Ah, yes. You stole Stefan and Elena's diaries—not quite sure why but I think you were probably bored—and made a bonfire in the middle of the town square. You asked certain people who you dislike if they could fly and when they said no, you told them it was never too late to try and promptly threw them off the clock tower. And how could we forget the glorious moment when you blew up your school gym—where you held all your precious parties?"

The car is gaining on them.

Caroline is the one to laugh now; big, infectious laughter that tilts at Klaus' lips and she says, "Mmm, that _was_ fun. I see why everyone likes turning off their switch now. It always did make me wonder."

She pushes herself back to her feet and brushes herself down busily. Klaus steps to her side and says, "How about I teach you to be a vampire? A real one? You've got all the makings of a real Ripper, you know. We can go anywhere you want—Rome?"

Caroline smiles.

"Paris?"

She picks up her bag.

"Tokyo?"

The car is about to zoom into Mystic Falls but Caroline smiles brighter at Klaus and steps right in front of it. With a screeching of the tires that skid wildly, the car screams to a halt and the driver is thrown back against his seat. He quickly yanks off his seatbelt and rushes out of the car as quickly as he can, babbling away apologies and asking what on earth she was thinking, is she crazy, is she okay—

Klaus whispers, "The offer's on the table, Caroline."

Caroline pushes at the driver, gets into the car and shakes her head, pushing at the stereo until music blares out of the speakers. "Thanks stalker-boy, but I'm going to have to pass."

_Hey soul sister,_

_Ain't that mister mister_

_On the radio, stereo –_

Caroline's teasing laughter rolls out into the night as she pushes on the accelerator with a fierce heel and speeds off.

.

.

She runs into Katherine.

No, literally, _runs_ into Katherine.

The brunette sails through the air and smashes through a fence as Caroline screeches to a halt, tapping at the steering wheel wonderingly. She should feel regret, she should be horrified, but all she feels is absolutely _nothing_.

Caroline gets out of the car and watches calmly as the angry doppelganger speeds to her side, fingers twisting around the blonde's neck in an instant, slamming her against the car furiously. "Hi, Kitty Kat," Caroline smiles calmly.

Frowning very slightly, Katherine eyes Caroline and snarls, "You tried to kill me, Caroline—,"

"Mm, yeah _nope_—it's your fault for being in the middle of the road; didn't you see I was busy speeding?"

Katherine tilts her head and Caroline lets herself be scrutinised before the doppelganger lets her go, chuckling throatily. "Someone's let go of their humanity," she singsongs and she sighs. "That's good—you're fun when you're not being judge-y. So what happened?"

Caroline lets out a breath. "Mm … let me see. Klaus attacked the Dream Team, me included, to get Elena for his sacrifice thing. We fought a bunch, found out he got some werewolf knocked up in New Orleans, he compelled me to turn off my humanity and I left. Yeah … sounds a bit boring, doesn't it?"

The brunette looks at her and laughs. "Things just got _in_-teresting."

.

.

**to be continued**


	3. breathe it in

**breathe it in**

.

.

"Bitch, I saw those _first_."

Caroline scowls at the dark-haired woman in front of her and holds on tight to the boots, yanking them to her chest. Katherine stands next to her, 'arguing' at the top of her lungs about the price of some silver earrings—"_you want to lower the price for me, don't you?"'"yes, the price will be lowered for you—?" "you know what, make it free, hmm?"—_and when the compelled salesman gives it to her, she gives a satisfied, smug, Katherine-worthy smile.

"They're mine," the woman opposite Caroline snarls and she accidentally (or maybe not-so accidentally, who knows; it's boots) scratches the blonde.

Eyes darkening, Caroline smirks. "You're going to pay for that."

Katherine flicks her gaze curiously towards the two. "Just compel her," she tells Caroline, "and be done with it, Care Bear."

"She scratched me, Kat—she's not getting off so easy."

"She scratched you?" Katherine repeats and her eyes narrow in disdain as she purposefully takes off her earrings. "That bitch is going _down_—hold my earrings, blondie."

They're in a Spanish shopping mall (Katherine and Caroline heard the magic word: _sale_) and there's been a bloody trail of bodies, dripping, drained completely of blood, following them from New York to London to Spain. It's only been two weeks and the vampires have already bonded over a mutual love for Tom Hiddleston (that accent, yumm-_ee_), ice cream and B Positive.

"Not so fast, Kitty Kat."

Caroline flicks a bored glance towards the speaker and drawls, "Well, if it isn't Damon the douchebag."

"Keep 'em coming, blondie," Damon smiles lazily, arms folded across his chest. "I'm still not leaving here without you."

"Unfortunately for you, I've no intention of letting you drag me back to that godforsaken town," Caroline says and yanks at a tall display dripping with jewellery, stuffing it into Damon's chest. She tears at the throat of a passing stranger and throws her at Damon for good measure.

Damon chuckles, yanks out the display from his chest and pushes away the bleeding stranger. "I'm not Stefan, Barbie—I'm not gonna go all Ripper on the first girl you throw me," he says as his eyes pass casually over the hordes of screaming customers. "I'm just here to tell you I'm gonna drag your blonde ass back to Mystic Falls and get you to switch your humanity back on, if it kills me."

Caroline decides to take him up on his offer.

So does Katherine.

It's a shame both of them didn't see Bon-Bon with her witchy chanting and amazing hair on the sidelines. Damon smirks his signature Damon smirk, the corners of his mouth tilting up in satisfaction, and waves his fingers as Caroline and Katherine fall unconscious. "See you on the flip side, evil ones."

.

.

"Care," Elena says, "we're going to help you, okay?"

"I don't need help, especially from a flawless martyr like you, Elena," Caroline spits, "I feel _fantastic_."

She's tied to a chair, weak and blood-deprived lest she goes all Hulk on everyone, in (where else?) the Salvatore basement. Caroline's head is high and she takes pride in the fact that her hair is still perfect despite having her brain fried, tied up and flown back to Mystic Falls in a couple of days. The Mystic Falls gang surround her warily, Elena, more braver than the rest, chooses to put a tentative hand on Caroline's arm until Caroline scowls coldly—"_get your damn hands off me; I'm allergic to sickly perfect_"—and she removes it, hurt.

"Turn it back on, Caroline," Bonnie tells her, voice commanding and regal, but her hands tremble on her Grimoire. "Come on, Caroline, just flick the switch—,"

Caroline stays silent.

Matt tries earnestly, "Caroline, we're not going to judge or anything—,"

No answer.

Jeremy quickly pushes pictures of her mom, her dad, Steven to the front and Tyler tries whispering sweet nothings to her ear until Caroline turns her nose up at them both. Stefan says, "Caroline, we know you're scared but it'll be okay, we'll help you through this—,"

Damon loses his temper and smashes his fifth glass of bourbon. "For god's sake, blondie," he snarls, "TURN IT BACK ON!"

Icy blue eyes turning on him fast, Caroline smirks at him. "And why on earth would I want to switch my humanity back on?" she says, addressing them all. "Ever thought about that? You think I want to go back to pleasing everyone, catering to everyone else's wishes but my own? You think I want to see Bon-Bon or my mom avoid me like the plague because of what I am or continue skirting around you all because you're always leaving me out of the loop? Mmm? What do you think would actually persuade me to turn my humanity back on?"

She hasn't insulted them, no, but the words fall like soft poison from her lips as she snaps and rages at them all.

"Didn't anybody tell you the party don't start till I walk in?"

Katherine stalks in the basement, half singing Ke$ha's _Tik Tok_ under her breath, smirking in satisfaction and Damon rolls his eyes. "I thought we locked her up."

"Jeremy was supposed to be watching her…" Matt trails off.

"Figures," Damon mutters.

Caroline scoffs and says, "You flatter yourself, Kat; you're a friend but not enough." She yawns loudly and leans against her chair, comfortably.

"How about all of us, then?" Elena begins. "We're your friends, Care. We care enough about you to do locator spells to death, search through all the towns around here and find you in Spain—,"

"Where you then proceeded to cook my brain and kidnap me," Caroline interrupts. 'Just sayin'."

"We love you, Care!" Elena says in desperation.

"Tell that to the ropes holding me down, sweetie!"

.

.

Caroline's still in the basement and from what she can sense, it's night, black wings of darkness soaring over the boarding house in one fell swoop. She taps at the chair leg with her foot, knocking out a random tune and humming under her breath casually, completely calm—

"Care, if you don't knock it off, I'm gonna have to stake you, gorgeous hair or not," Katherine growls from the chair next to her. She's still a little pissed—Elena, out of the goodness of her heart took off her heels to save Kat some pain when Bon-Bon was mind-whammying her and tying her to the chair. Caroline's only known Katherine a few weeks but even she knows _you don't take the kitty Kat's shoes; she's got claws_.

They can hear the others roaming around tirelessly upstairs, arguing about Caroline, wondering out loud what to do, and Caroline rolls her eyes when Bonnie says, "We can't give up on her; she wouldn't do that for us."

"WOULD'VE BEEN AWESOME TO KNOW THAT BEFORE, BON-BON!" Caroline yells up the stairs as an amused Katherine laughs.

"Time for Plan K," Damon growls and Klaus is back.

.

.

**A/N**: So I know it's supposed to be a trilogy but what can I say? MY BRAIN'S WIRED WRONG. But yeah, it even has an epilogue! Probably. Enjoy The Vampire Diaries tonight, people! Oh and I hope you enjoyed this chapter, as well! I feel like I'm just talking to myself though...

**UPDATE ON A/N: **This is for the Guest (Elena) who reviewed on this story. Okay, I totally get that my story is a little lacking in the back story bit but I thought I explained last chapter. Or maybe it was in my head...

Anyway, the reason Caroline got compelled was because Klaus was going all Hulk-mode on the Mystic Falls gang and he saw her as their, for want of a better word, hope. Their light, I suppose, and to extinguish that light, he turned off her humanity. And after that, well, she goes a little mental, sets fire to the school gym, Elena and Stefan's diaries and throws people off the clock tower because she's bored. Then she hijacks some guy's car and runs into Katherine and they go exploring the world, with Damon and the others performing locator spell after locator spell trying to find her.

I hope this manages to answer all of your questions, I'm sorry my story was that confusing but I do wish you'd logged in or something so I could just PM you, instead.

Thank you.


	4. turn it on

**turn it on**

.

.

"Turn it on," he whispers into her face and she tries to refuse but like before, the compulsion tears into the fabric of her tightly-pressed power over herself.

_turn it on_

She doesn't want to feel; come on, this isn't _fair_, she screams silently as the switch strains to be felt but she struggles against it violently, head splitting with the pain and she tries hard, please, come on, not to yield.

_turn it on_

Oh, she could do it, she supposes, it's very simple, isn't it? But damn them all to _hell_ because she doesn't want to, no, no, no, no, no, she doesn't to turn it on; no, she doesn't, no!

_turn it on_

And it's because she _can't_ feel the emotions push and push against her shield, straining to break through as the intoxicating and heady words coil in her and she's trying so hard not to—

_turn it on_

She can't—she doesn't—

_turn it on_

Please—

_turn it on_

_turn it on_

_turnitonturnitonturnitonturnitonturnitonturniton—_

Caroline gasps for breath as she switches it back on, eyes almost immediately filling with unshed tears and the horrors of what she's done and said slash into her. The air sparks with nervous tension and strains to be heard. She slumps against the chair pathetically, as Katherine's snarls of anger finally break through, and begins to sob.

"I'm so—," she hiccups, "_sorry_; please, I'm so—,"

Elena and Bonnie rush to her side, pulling the blonde into a stifling hug as the three begin sobbing hysterically amidst Caroline's tearful apologies. The men stand awkwardly, not exactly sure where to look, until Damon claps a grateful on Klaus' shoulder and tells him he'll lay off the Santa Klaus Christmas cards for one year—_but only one year, okay_?

"Don't you guys think we should get the ropes off of her, now?"

.

.

**A/N:** Okay, so there's a bit more left - the epilogue, I mean. The last speaker was Jeremy, by the way, and to clear up any confusion: it's been two weeks, the Mystic Falls Gang and The Originals made a truce, Klaus has been taking care of Mama Mikaelson in New Orleans but when Damon called for a bit of help, he decided why not? I hope you guys enjoyed it!


	5. ain't no rest for the wicked

**epilogue**

**(because there ain't no rest for the wicked)**

.

.

Amidst the celebratory party, Katherine Pierce manages to yank off the ropes tying her down to the chair. She's been forgotten but Kat doesn't mind (lies; she does) as she tiptoes her way upstairs, all the while minding how there are one, two—_a lot of_ vampires with supersonic hearing around.

The five hundred year old is all the way outside when she realises she's barefoot.

"You forgot these," Caroline says, holding up the heels by the straps as she leans against the doorframe.

Katherine eyes her a little warily before tiptoeing up and snatching her heels out from Caroline's fingers, pushing them on. The brunette gives a little sigh of satisfaction—_ahh_, she's missed these babies. "Well, toodles, Care Bear," she says, resignedly. "It was uh, fun. While it lasted anyway."

"Who says the fun's gotta end, Kitty Kat?" Caroline says. She winks and a sudden flash of intriguing excitement of _non-humanity_ flickers through her icy blue eyes once again.

A smile slowly pushes at Katherine's lips.

.

.

**fin**

**A/N:** Yeah, so maybe humanity-switched-on Caroline is a little more intense and caring than non-humanity Caroline. I'll leave y'all (look at me, trying to be Texan, SHAME ON ME) to wonder what happens next.

I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it! And also, I want to say thanks to everyone who's reviewed, favourited or followed this story. It means a lot to me - especially pleasesaycaroline who is awesome beyond words and you guys should totally check out her fah-bulous stories!


End file.
